The present disclosure relates to dental computer connected devices. In particular, the disclosure relates to using speech recognition in command and control for dental computer connected devices.
Computers are used increasingly in dental clinics, offices, teaching and training institutions to operate an expanding variety of devices and applications (hereinafter “dental computer connected devices”), such as, but not limited to, digital intra-oral radiography, panoramic radiography, cephalometric radiography, intra-oral video, cosmetic imaging manipulation, digital FOTI (fiber-optic trans-illumination) imaging, intra-oral spectrometry and color matching, digital periodontic probes, scanned input images, computerized intercom and telephone, intra-office cameras, and practice management.
The conventional methods of inputting data to and controlling the dental computer connected devices through the computer by operating a keyboard, mouse, touch screen monitor and/or other manually operated input-output (I/O) devices have some significant drawbacks when used in a dental environment. For example, manual manipulation of an I/O device by a dentist or dental technician while the dentist/technician is attending to a patient may be impractical since the computer must be conveniently positioned near the patient while not interfering with the dentist/technician's movement in attending to the patient.
It has been proposed to control mechanical components of an X-ray system according to voice commands detected through speech recognition. A user of the proposed system can control, for example, positioning of a dental chair/light and/or mechanical movement of X-ray system components by issuing a spoke command.
Others have proposed attaching to a computerized medical image dictated comments detected using speech recognition. In the proposed system, a physician, for example, provides her/his comments by speaking into a microphone while reviewing a medical image. The oral comments are converted to text through speech recognition, and the text is thereafter associated and stored with the image.
There are, however, many other aspects of dental office practice that may be made more efficient through computer speech recognition. For example, there are circumstances in which a dentist needs to refer to one or more of a patient's dental images, while attending to the patient. Conventional dental computer systems generally require manual operation of computer I/O devices, such as a mouse and/or keyboard, to specify a computer stored dental image to be retrieved. Since both hands of the dentist/technician often are needed for attending to a patient, the dentist typically would need to switch back and forth between attending to the patient and operating the computer, which may be time consuming. Further, switching back and forth between patient and hand operated I/O devices results in complications regarding infection control.